Health care Zimbabwe

Adamolekun B, Mielke J, Ball D, Mundanda T. An evaluation of the management of epilepsy by primary health care nurses in Chitungwiza, Zimbabwe. Epilepsy Res 2000 39(3) 177-81. 

However, Zimbabwe was not spared tbe economic crises that swept across African countries from tbe mid-1980s. Expansion of social services without rising revenues led to budget deficits, forcing tbe government to abandon tbeir initial resistance to economic structural adjustment programmes (AfDB, 1998). On tbe advice of tbe IMF and technocrats in the Ministry of Finance, the country embarked on a structural adjustment programme in 1991. Disastrous economic outcomes included deindustrialization, unemployment and deterioration of the health care system (AfDB, 1997 Brett, 2005 Richardson, 2005). 

The perception that the industry has not been working hard to improve, is not borne out by the facts. An initiative named Responsible Care which is the chemical industry s commitment to continuous improvement in all aspects of health, safety and environmental protection was launched in Canada in 1984. It was adopted by the USA in 1988 and has been spreading around the world since then. Apart from North America and Europe which are discussed below, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, India, Zimbabwe and other countries have adopted it [5]. The European Chemical Industry Council (CEFIC) has drawn up guidelines which are given in Figure 1.1 [5]. In the UK, where the Chemical Industries Association (CIA) makes participation in the Responsible Care initiative a condition of membership, discharges of red list substances (compounds of mercury and cadmium, DDT, malathion, triphenyl and tributyl tin, etc.) fell by 40% between 1990 and 1992 whilst special wastes (compounds of arsenic, antimony, barium, mercury, nickel, vanadium, etc.) disposed of off site fell by 9% [6]. The Chemical Manufacturers Association (CMA) in the USA also makes participation a condition of membership and one of its Pollution Prevention Code requirements is very relevant to this book ... 

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